Vanessa Raw, installation view at Rubell Museum, Miami, 2024. Photography: Chi Lam. Courtesy of the Rubell Museum.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Contemporary art collectors Don and Mera Rubell made Miami history when they opened their namesake museum in 1993, several years after moving to the city from New York. While living in Chelsea, they began visiting the studios of local artists such as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, purchasing many of the final pieces on modest payment plans. The early work that made him a superstar. <\/p>\n
Today, the Rubell family’s collection is one of the most impressive of its kind, with more than 7,700 works by some of the most coveted artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. In 2022, the pair opened a second museum in Washington, D.C., to showcase “the unique role of the artist as teacher.”<\/p>\n
Traditionally, the Rubell Museum in Miami updates its lineup of artworks on display each December, just before Art Basel in Miami Beach. This year’s re-exhibition is particularly significant, with half of the 36 galleries completely revamped. Several weirdos have moved in, such as Zhu Jinshi\u2019s Boat<\/em> (2012), an immersive sculpture composed of 12,000 hanging sheets of rice paper.<\/p>\nMera Rubell told Artsy that as their collection continues to evolve, the couple sometimes takes the needs of their audience into consideration. “I have to admit, we do,” Meira said. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to cater to the audience, but we like to surprise the audience \u2013 we like to let them see the magic that we see.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Rubell Museum interior refreshed<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n\n
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Portrait of Don and Meira Rubel. Courtesy of the Rubell Museum. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Installation view of Zhu Jinshi, Boat, <\/i>2012, Rubell Museum, Miami, 2024. Photography: Chi Lam. Courtesy of the Rubell Museum. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
This year’s new exhibition focuses on artists active in the East Village in the 1980s. Basquiat and Haring also appear, as well as relatively unknown artists such as Louis Frangueira, Stephen Lake and Rick Prower. The Rubell family was an important part of this heyday: not only were they early patrons of these artists, but they were friends (Haring introduced them to Basquiat). <\/p>\n
At the same time, this year\u2019s update prioritizes the present. The couple has always had a reputation for collecting cutting-edge art, and this year seven young artists will make their debut at the Rubell Museum: artist Emmanuel Louisnord Desir, figurative painter and sculptor Omari Douglin, installation artist Patrick Goddard, interior painter Michelle Uckotter, portrait Home artist February James, sculptor Murjoni Merriweather and illustrator Slawn. For many of these names, this month also marks their first institutional showing. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Slawn, installation view at Rubell Museum, Miami, 2024. Photography: Chi Lam. Courtesy of the Rubell Museum. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Painting was Mera Rubel’s favorite medium and still dominates the museum. “I love the way it’s applied, the magic of the brushstroke, the way the artist depicts light and emotion,” she said. “It’s like an endless mystery.” Iconic examples abound from legends like Cecily Brown, Henry Taylor and Yoshitomo Nara.<\/p>\n
Still, the family found the sculpture enticing and knew it would delight their guests. Cady Nolan’s Budweiser Stock This piece doesn’t have a title yet <\/em>(1989) has been rising since the Rubell family purchased it in 1996. Cajsa von Zeipel\u2019s legendary tech Amazon also reappears after an absence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Cajsa von Zeipel, installation view Release me, release you<\/i>2022, Rubell Museum Miami, 2024. Photography: Chi Lam. Courtesy of the Rubell Museum. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
\u201cShe\u2019s very creative,\u201d Mera said of von Zeppel. “She brings humor. She really takes you through the culture of our time, the social culture, the sexual culture – the online alienation that we’re all part of, the loss of human contact.” Most of all, they love capturing the ever-changing Artist of the human condition.<\/p>\n
The Changing Impact of the Rubell Collection <\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, installation view at Rubell Museum, Miami, 2024. Photography: Chi Lam. Courtesy of the Rubell Museum. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Rubells continued to purchase large quantities of art. Although the values \u200b\u200bof their purchases have soared over the years, they are known to never sell. As a result, new and long-term collections blend seamlessly with the museum’s solo and group exhibitions and loose themes.<\/p>\n
In the first gallery, one of Richard Prince\u2019s monumental joke paintings is back on display for the first time in 15 years, at not afraid of love <\/em>(2000), created by Maurizio Cattelan, whom Mera calls “the biggest clown”. She and Don lent the elephant sculpture, hidden under a sheet, to Cattelan for the controversial 2011 Guggenheim retrospective, which hung entirely from ropes.<\/p>\nThe Rubells also occasionally collect collectively. Not only did they send a large body of work to the Guggenheim\u2019s upcoming Rasheed Johnson retrospective, but they also transformed the museum\u2019s second gallery from a group show to a focus on the artist. A mysterious piece made of black soap, wax and paint on red oak retains its longstanding status, alongside dozens of Johnson’s other looming wall-mounted assemblages, many of which feature record and book collections . \u201cI was amazed that we were able to put together such a lovely gallery,\u201d recalls Meira. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Rashid Johnson, installation view at Rubell Museum, Miami, 2024. Photography: Chi Lam. Courtesy of the Rubell Museum. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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After a room dedicated to the female nude and another to tapestries, a particularly colorful and captivating gallery merges debut artist February James’s loose, electric portraits with Murjoni Merriweather’s woven busts. As one body. Later, another gallery, which previously paired paintings by Haring and Sterling Ruby, was now divided into two spaces. The first space now focuses on Haring\u2019s works on paper. \u201cIt was precious to see the rawness of his lines on paper,\u201d Mehra said. The gallery below now features four of Ruby’s massive and mesmerizing sunsets. “It’s like a Rothko chapel,” she commented.<\/p>\n
Ruby created these moody works during the Rubells’ first artist residency in 2011. This week, the Rubells are opening a new exhibition of paintings by their 2024 resident artist, Vanessa Raw.<\/p>\n
2024 marks the 60th anniversary of Don and Mera getting married and starting collecting together. Meira said that during that time, the way they found artists remained the same: everything was organic. For example, they approached Raw after Tracey Emin selected her to participate in Frieze London 2023\u2019s Artists to Artists section.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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February James and Murjoni Merriweather, installation view at Rubell Museum, Miami, 2024. Photography: Chi Lam. Courtesy of the Rubell Museum. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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However, during those 60 years, Meira was surprised to see how many people came into contemporary art “from all angles,” she said, “opening galleries, collecting, making art.”<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good thing is that more artists can make a living from their art,\u201d Meira continued. “The bad thing is that it’s become very commercial and opportunistic.” She wants everyone to remember that “art makes a profound contribution in teaching us about who we are and what the world is.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Michelle Uckotter, installation view at Rubell Museum, Miami, 2024. Photography: Chi Lam. Courtesy of the Rubell Museum. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Fittingly, the gallery of four medium-sized paintings by Michelle Uckotter is one of Mela\u2019s favorite new installations. The works depict Akkot in her cluttered studio with an acerbic heaviness. “We have a lot of respect that letting people into your studio is something that happens very easily,” she told Artsy. <\/p>\n
Indeed, as the Rubells welcome residents of Miami Art Week, this year’s exhibition at the Rubell Museum highlights an array of stunning works of art as, for collectors, their eyes take cues from their hearts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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